The Stillaguamish Valley Transfer of Development Rights (TDR) program
What is the Stillaguamish Valley Transfer of Development Rights program?
The Stillaguamish Valley Transfer of Development Rights (TDR) program is a partnership between the City of Arlington, Snohomish County and landowners of the sending and receiving areas to preserve the farmed land of the Stillaguamish River Valley, located between Interstate 5 and Highway 9 along the Highway 530 corridor.
The Stillaguamish Valley has over one-hundred years of agricultural use in and around the sloughs, streams and remnants of remaining forests that once covered the river valley. With time, changes have come to the valley. This has spurred the Arlington community to work together with Snohomish County and our landowners to save the remaining farmland and agricultural industry while preserving the natural beauty that comes with the river valley.
The fulfillment of the vision of providing a sustainable way of life to future generations is possible if we consider all the things necessary to support the basic necessities. We know that to provide the human and wildlife populations in the valley a healthy and safe place to live we need three things: food – water – shelter. Of course we need to consider economics of the landowners and developers of today, but also the long-term benefits of having thriving food production, processing, retail sales of raw with value-added products and a thriving natural world for recreation and harvest. The partners in the TDR program feel that through the protection of our sending area of the Stillaguamish Valley we can provide a model of sustainable practices that can be expanded throughout the Puget Sound region.
The partners are currently working to improve the current TDR regulations so they better fit the needs of the buyers and sellers of TDR certificates. Mayor Margaret Larson spent a good portion of 2008 working to make the TDR program take off. She attended monthly meetings as an Advisory Board Member on the Community Trade and Economic Development (CTED) Committee of local leaders implementing House Bill 1636, adopted by the Washington State Legislature in 2007. The bill was instituted to empower a group of people to work with CTED to develop a regional approach to a TDR program framework that could be used by various jurisdictions. The main theme that came out of this committee outlined two very important elements that are keys to success of a TDR program. First, it has to be something that is important to the area receiving higher density for them to participate. For Arlington, it was easy to decide to save the beautiful gateway valley with all the benefits it provides our citizens. Second, and perhaps more importantly, it has to be economically beneficial for both the sending area and receiving area participants. The key to economics in our valley situation will be to leverage all the existing mutually beneficial programs that are available such as farmland preservation, flood control, salmon recovery and public trust fund loans targeted at improving water quality. We are firm believers that there doesn’t have to be a loser to have a successful TDR program!
Brief Facts & Definitions
Stillaguamish Valley Sending Area: There are over 3,000 acres of land in the valley with about 2,500 of those acres that are eligible to participate in the program.
Arlington Receiving Area: The area known as “Brekhus-Beach” is a total of 337 acres with a significant portion of those areas being protected critical areas. This area was annexed into the City of Arlington in 2007, with the clear notion that it would be a designated receiving area for TDR certificates.
Timing: As they always say, “Timing is everything”. The local housing market has a sufficient number of lots already available for building, so the pressure to develop in the receiving area has dropped dramatically. This provides us ample time to evaluate proposed receiving area regulations, rather than the previous rush we were in. The goal is to have all receiving regulations updated when the demand for TDR certificates is on the upswing again. This is a moving target, but all indicators point to mid-2009 for the beginnings of a housing market turn-around.
TDR Sending Area: Located in the Stillaguamish Valley northeast of Arlington. The area is roughly bordered by Interstate 5, Highway 9, the northern City limits of Arlington, and the Stillaguamish River. The valley was historically dominated by dairy farms which have all closed. Those farmers who knew dairying are ready to retire and don’t want to re-tool for a new type of agriculture. In order to make it economically equitable for those retired farmers to keep the farms in large acreages the TDR program was developed. A farmer can sell the development rights while retaining ownership of the entire farm along with the rights to continue farming. Currently, farmland is worth more to break in to small 10-acres lots to be sold as small “farmettes”, than it is to sell a large 100-acre farm as a single unit.
TDR Receiving Area: The current City regulations require that a developer has to purchase TDR Certificates to develop in the Brekhus/Beach Area. That regulation was agreed to between the City, County and a majority of the landowners in the receiving area as a means to be included in the City of Arlington Urban Growth Area. A developer can build up to four homes or two high density dwelling units in exchange for a TDR Certificate. The area also allowed a specified amount of commercial development. The City is trying to plan for and build modern walkable communities and would like to encourage small corner markets for basics such as milk, bread and locally grown products.
Development Right Certificate
The Cost of a Development Right Certificate: The cost of a development right is calculated by subtracting the difference between the cost of farm land and rural residential lots. The example is farmland may sell for $5,000.00 per acre where a rural residential 10-acre lot may sell for as much as $20,000.00 per acre. There are variable costs for a farmer to break a 100-acre farm in to ten 10-acre “farmettes” so the difference is $15,000 per acre less the cost of subdividing the land and putting in services (water, sewer, power, etc.). That difference is what the farmer can charge a developer for the purchase of a development right certificate. There are estimates ranges between $3,000 and $12,000 added to the cost of each new dwelling unit in the receiving area.